After going to work in the ninth inning for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7, putting almost three innings after pitching 96 the night before, Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned the ultimate honor: World Series MVP.
Awarded the trophy by unanimous decision during the ceremony, Yamamoto was asked one simple question: how the heck did he throw 34 pitches one night after going for nearly 100 at the Rogers Centre? While Yamamoto wasn't sure if he could even go on such short rest, in the end, he's glad he did, as he notched his third-straight World Series win and a trophy to boot.
“I wasn't sure if I could pitch tonight until I went to the bullpen, but I'm glad I did,” Yamamoto declared.
When was the last time a pitcher won games in a World Series run? That would be never, as Yamamoto's play created history the likes of which baseball has never seen before in almost 150 years.
Originally signing a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers in December of 2023, some initially wondered if the Dodgers were foolish to give up that kind of money to a player who had never thrown a pitch at the highest level of baseball. Fast forward to November of 2025, and it's hard to imagine a world where the Dodgers win a game, let alone the World Series, without Yamamoto on the mound. On a team with three MVPs, Yamamoto was the MVP of the World Series and now has the hardware and a place in baseball history to prove it.
